GSX is specifically for Microsoft Flightsim, so is not compatible with other flight sims.

However Flightgear already has most of the infrastructure for such an add-on. All that is needed is someone, or some group, to join up the dots. The big advantage is that Flightgear, unlike MS Flight Sim, is open source.

The challenge is clear. The OP has identified that there is a need. Who will take it up?

Do you think of MP (multiplay) ground service or just local ("single player")? I thought about MP some time ago, would be really cool but it needs a new server to host/control/AI all kind of gnd vehicles or maybe even a complete overhaul of the network and MP code which is quite a "hack".

Well, I'd assume it's easier, and fully enough to have single player Ground services. Some aircraft already have them, but maybe it's possible to have general ones. Meaning that, just like the jetway feature, an aircraft needs to be equipped for GS, so that there are programmed doors, where the GS-vehicles know to connect. That's the aircraft side...The airport infrastructure could be improved when having programmed roads, where GSvehicles can drive on. So ground service vehicles could use some kind of programmed taxiways, and connect to the aircraft.What do you think??

Canary Islands Custom SceneryImprovement of the AI Traffic for the Canary Islands RegionRoutePlans for the Eastern Atlantic (Azores, Madeira, Cap Verde, Canaries)About to open a Binter Canarias VA

Well, now it's getting interesting...Can you tell us how they are operated? Do they "just appear", or do they have driving capabilities? Are they controlled by the user, who "drives" them, like the existing pushback, or is it automated, so you just activate them and it's done?

Canary Islands Custom SceneryImprovement of the AI Traffic for the Canary Islands RegionRoutePlans for the Eastern Atlantic (Azores, Madeira, Cap Verde, Canaries)About to open a Binter Canarias VA

Just to get the correct impression: Are your comments meant ironically due to the complexity of jetways.nas?

I spent some time during the last weeks for checking opportunities for building ground services. There are already existing ground service components in FG providing Pushback, FollowMe, Ramp Marshall and Jetways (maybe even more). Integrating these with the existing AI system appears straightforward. Routes for driving vehicles on the apron could be derived from groundnet.xml.

I didn't succeed in understanding the existing AI system with its moving vehicles from waypoint to waypoint, neither by checking the code nor by building a sample scenario. The Nasal approach of tanker.nas however looks more comprehensive. Reading groundnet.xml from Nasal apparently isn't possible yet without doing explicit XML parsing. Though the airportinfo function in nasal provides parking and taxiway information, these might be derived from different sources than groundnet.xml.Having the groundnet.xml information available in Nasal in combination with the logic in tanker.nas might provide a simple way for having vehicles moving on the apron.

But thinking further reveals more challenges:

1) The existing ground service components are based on different concepts. (the FollowMe vehicle eg. is a pseudo aircraft if I understand that correct). Integrating these different concepts might lead to the loss of some features/ideas/concepts or to a competition of concepts (often resulting in endless discussions).

2) Vehicles driving exactly on the groundnet will collide with others. The routes could be modified a few meters beside the route. But a pushback car for example needs some special route for reaching the front of an aircraft without driving through a building. All this might lead to complex geometry calculations.

Sounds daunting to me. However, I think I'll continue my current efforts reading groundnet.xml manually and moving vehicles on that routes.